


À la recherche du temps perdu

by leiascully



Series: There Will Be Other Dances [6]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-06
Updated: 2011-06-06
Packaged: 2017-10-20 05:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/209184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We know how the story ends. It's just working out the middle that's the problem."</p>
            </blockquote>





	À la recherche du temps perdu

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Post-6.07 "A Good Man Goes To War"  
> Concrit: Welcome  
> A/N: Title is from the famous work by Marcel Proust. This is my attempt to explain why Doctor/River is not some Breaking Dawn-type nonsense, or even some Emma type nonsense. Also, I don't like the prophecy that friendship dies at the battle of Demon's Run, so. Thank you to coffeesuperhero for the readover and to pocky_slash for title suggestions. Here it is, some feel-good fix-it fic.

The next time the TARDIS materializes in front of them, Rory and Amy are prepared. They tramp aboard and get straight to the point.

"Where is she?" Amy demands, searching the control room for the little blue cot.

"Who?" the Doctor says airily. "See, some might have said 'whom' there, but that would just be pretentious."

"Melody!" Amy says. "River. Whatever she's called. My daughter." Her hands knot into fists at her sides. "Where is my daughter?"

"I told you it was too late to get her back right then," the Doctor says, his face tense. "They'll have hidden her away where I won't be able to find her. They won't harm her, though - they need her for something. I'm not sure what. I'm working on it, though."

"That's not good enough," Amy says fiercely. "That's not good enough for me."

"Or me," Rory adds. He's wearing his sword over his jeans and his knuckles are white around the hilt. "They took my wife, Doctor. They took my daughter. You've got to make it right. You've got to bring her back."

"I am doing everything I can," the Doctor swears.

"No, you're not," Rory says, and his voice is low and dangerous. "You're here, picking us up for a quick joyride."

"I'm here and I'm there," the Doctor says. "I'm everywhere I can be. I'm at the ends of the universe, looking for your daughter, and I'm leaving no stone unturned. She's been hidden away but there's nowhere the TARDIS and I won't go, no time we won't find to bring her home. Do you trust me?"

"How can I?" Amy shouts. "It's your fault!"

"It is," the Doctor says quietly. "It is my fault. And I'm sorry. And there's nothing I won't do to make that right, you two. I hope you know that."

"Swear it," she says, and her voice vibrates with anger. "Swear you'll never stop. Swear you'll bring the storm if you have to and be the warrior they think you are. Swear it on your life."

"Amelia Pond, I swear on fish fingers and custard that nothing in the universe will stop me finding your daughter, even if it's the end of me." He puts both hands on her shoulders and looks deep into her eyes. "Okay? You know I will, because I did. She's going to be safe because she is safe. Everything will work out because everything did work out. You see that, don't you? We know how the story ends. She told you so. It's just working out the middle that's the trouble. I promise you that even now, I'm making sure it's written properly."

They stare at each other, Amy nearly quivering with anger.

" _She will be all right_ ," the Doctor says in his stormiest voice. "On my life, Ponds. You know she will be. You saw her stand in front of you. She _will_ come back to us."

She nods and dashes away a couple of tears as the Doctor folds her into a brief hug. Rory hovers protectively behind her, his glare fading. The Doctor turns away to fiddle with the console of the TARDIS.

"Your daughter is a force to be reckoned with. In fact, I reckon she can bend the universe to her will," the Doctor tells them. "If I can't find her, you can rest assured that she'll find me. Thought we could make ourselves a few distractions in the meantime. We could go and find her now-version if you'd like. You could even ask her a few questions, if you wanted, though there's no guarantee she'll tell you anything. Time Lordiness, you know - can't interfere too much. But I wouldn't mind seeing her again." The Doctor smiles to himself.

"Are we going to have to have a little chat about this?" Rory asks, resting his hand meaningfully on the hilt of his sword again.

"About what?" the Doctor asks, distracted by something on the monitor.

"About the fact that you've been snogging our daughter, apparently," Amy says, leaning against the console and crossing her arms.

The Doctor grins self-consciously. "Yes, I suppose I have, haven't I?" He hums a little snatch of a tune and then catches Rory and Amy's eyes. "Oh, come _on_ now. I didn't know she was your daughter, did I? And neither did you!"

"That's not the point," Amy tells him. "Rory?"

"How can you want to snog her?" Rory demands. "You knew her when she was just a baby!"

"No, I didn't," the Doctor points out. "I won't know her then until a very long time from now, except for the other day. When I met her, she was a grown woman with very strong opinions and very distinct ideas about what ought to be happening between us, and that's our future for years to come." His eyes darken. "She saved my life, the first time I met her. She was a complete stranger to me and a complete mystery as well, but she saved my life and four thousand and twenty-two other people's. You can be proud of her. But you know that already. No, I didn't meet her newborn self until just recently, and I don't think I'll see her as a child again until much later in her timeline." He thinks about it a moment, then adds, "Besides, she snogged me first. Or last. Whichever way you want to look at it. It was definitely all her idea. Every bit of it was her idea."

Amy snorts derisively. "Now _that_ I can believe." She bumps her shoulder against Rory's. "She gets that from my side of the family."

"You should be more upset about this," he tells her.

"I'm more upset that my daughter's going to live backwards," she says. "We'll find her, Rory, but think of what we're missing until then. As for the snogging, well. I mean, he has a point. She's older than we are right now - it isn't his fault he fell for someone and then happened to meet her as a baby. That probably happens to Time Lords all the time."

"Thank you, Amy," the Doctor says gravely. "It is rather an occupational hazard."

"Mind you," she says, "I would appreciate a little reassurance that you won't flirt with her when she's much too young for you."

"I don't flirt!" the Doctor says, scandalized.

Even Rory rolls his eyes and the lights in the TARDIS flicker.

"Anyway, I wouldn't," the Doctor says. "You have my assurance on that. I'll leave it to her to make the first move. The last move. You know she will anyway. She is her mother's daughter." He smiles at Amy. "I prefer people with life experience. Older women always know what they want."

"I can't decide whether that helps or not," she tells him.

"It helps a little," Rory admits.

"Oi, you're supposed to be on my side." Amy scowls at him.

"I don't know which side you're on anymore!" Rory protests.

"I can't help it!" Amy says. "They're kind of perfect together. You should have seen them at the _Byzantium_. She keeps him in line. She's got a mind of her own, anyway - tell her to keep away and I'm sure she'll just snog him all the more. I don't know if we'll ever even know her at the age where we can tell her what to do. I don't know if she was ever that young."

" _You_ certainly weren't," Rory tells her.

"We do work well, don't we?" the Doctor says half to himself.

"Wipe that smile off your face," Rory tells him.

The Doctor sighs. "Rory Williams. I hereby promise to defend your daughter with my life, to cherish and keep her to the very limits of love and possibility, and to value her well-being above my own. You know as well as I do she'd kill me for asking you for her hand or however it might go."

"Yeah, she would," Rory says resignedly. "And probably me too." He broods.

"I'm nine hundred years old," the Doctor says. "There's hardly a soul in this universe who has seen the things I've seen. I've outlived everyone I ever loved. But River Song, born of the Time Vortex and of the Ponds - if there's a match for me in the universe, she might be it, or so she's been telling me."

"She did have a time head," Amy murmurs.

"Yes, and whose fault is that?" the Doctor says, pretending to be stern. "You two, couldn't wait until you were back on solid ground."

"It was our wedding night!" Rory says. "Our _wedding_ night, Doctor. I hate to say it, but you might know what that means someday."

"I've been married before," the Doctor says airily. "Nine hundred years, Ponds. You can get a lot done in a span like that."

"And yet you still gave us bunk beds," Amy mutters.

"Bunk beds are cool," the Doctor says. "Very spaceship-y."

"River won't put up with that," Amy tells him. She stares off into space. "It's so strange, knowing but not knowing our own daughter. Must be strange for her too."

Rory puts his arm around her. "It'll be all right, love."

"I know," Amy tells him. "Because it is, now. So it must be. Must have been." She frowns. "Does Gallifreyan have tenses?"

"More than you can imagine," the Doctor assures her.

"She said they'd make her a weapon," Rory says. "What does that mean? I thought you were off to get her back safely."

"I will," the Doctor promises. "All in good time. Yes, I know, this is a time machine. Not all times can be rewritten. Not every moment is the right one. Some things that will happen must have happened before it will all work out the way it was supposed to have done." He pauses. "English really isn't the right language for this."

"But she'll be safe?" Rory asks, tightening his arm around Amy. "She'll be happy?"

"In time," the Doctor assures him. "You know she must be, because she was, before, in our timeline. But until then she'll be brave and strong and incredible and resourceful and that was the most I ever hoped for, for my children. The most I ever will." He falls silent.

"So you did have children," Amy says.

"Yes," the Doctor says, looking straight at them. "Once upon a time. And I outlived them, just as I've done with everyone, and that's a fate I wouldn't wish on any parent. Amy, Rory, believe me when I say I will bring your daughter home as soon as I can. For your sakes and for hers. But it's a thing in progress and it will be for a while. I can't snap my fingers and make this all better. You'll just have to trust me when I say that nothing in the universe will stop me from finding River and giving her the life she's meant to have. And if I love her, it's for the woman she'll be, the woman I met in the library. She'll make me her destiny. It won't be me. Yes, I care for her because she's _your_ child, and I feel responsible. But I swear to you that I'll love her on her own merits, for the woman she became. No one will be raising her to love the Doctor."

"That's all I really wanted," Rory says after a long poignant silence. "I mean, the old pater familias act, it doesn't really look good on me anyway."

"It was kind of sweet," Amy says thoughtfully. "But it kind of made me want to hit you. Honestly, she's not a child. At this point. Or that point. Or whenever. You're nearly as bad as 'honor and obey'."

"I've never been a dad before," Rory protests. "Especially not to a grown woman. It's a bit stressful, all right? I thought I'd have a few years before she started dating to get used to the idea."

Amy kisses him on the cheek. "You'll be fine."

"Just try not to dazzle her too much," Rory says to the Doctor. "When, you know, when you meet her. In the future."

"No, don't tell me!" the Doctor says, covering his ears. "Spoilers!"

"Does she get that from you or the other way around?" Amy asks.

"Hard to say," the Doctor tells her, uncovering one ear. "This timelines business does get confusing. Suffice to say, we'll all have a lot of influence on each other over the years." He rubs his hands together gleefully. "And what years they'll be, eh? Come on, Ponds. It's not every parent who gets to know in advance that their child will grow up to be a successful doctor."

"And interstellar criminal," Amy points out, but she sounds impressed.

"At least people will think twice about messing with her," Rory says, only a little bit morose. "And I already know you've broken my little girl's heart."

"Yes," the Doctor says quietly, putting his hands in his pockets. "I'm sorry about that. But it couldn't be helped. I didn't know then what I know now. And she knew everything."

Rory claps the Doctor on the shoulder. "Just make sure you make it up to her, the rest of her life. Yeah?"

"Yeah," the Doctor says, smiling. He touches Rory's shoulder too. "And you two can sleep easy, because somewhere out there, I'm working right now to bring her home."

"You better be," Amy says fiercely.

"Ponds of little faith," the Doctor says, pulling a switch. "Where shall we go, eh? The Singing Towers? The ice caves of Neo Ares? I hear there's a lovely triple sunset off the coast of some islands on Lepscillia. Or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, would you like to see those?"

"Somewhere warm," Amy says, leaning against Rory. "You never did take us to Rio."

"Rio it is," the Doctor says with satisfaction, twisting a knob and pressing a button. "And we're off!"

The TARDIS makes its familiar noise and Amy and Rory grab on to the railing, the four of them careening through the vortex again in search of adventure and happy endings.


End file.
